122 Wis. 273 | Wis. | 1904
Lead Opinion
The question of the exact limits in practical application of our statutory scheme of taxing each of our railroads as a whole, heretofore by an impost measured by the gross earnings, and reciprocally exempting the various specific pieces of real and personal property which together and in connection with its franchise constitute the railroad, has been often considered, but, we are constrained to confess, with imperfect success in prescribing either principles or rules which have been found workable as later cases have arisen. E.ach such case, while paying apparent deference to the ultimate decisions in preceding ones, has expressed dissent from some of the principles upon which its predecessors were decided. The question is one of statutory construction, upon which decisions "from other courts having different statutes or different general rules for construction of somewhat similar statutes can be of little use, if they may not be positively misleading.
The exemption (subd. 14, sec. 1038, Stats. 1898) is limited to property “necessarily used in operating any railroad.” This is entitled to liberal construction in favor of the plaintiff, because it is not a mere exemption from taxation, but is part of the general scheme of taxing all of this class of property otherwise than other property. Merrill R. & L. Co. v. Merrill, 119 Wis. 249, 96 N. W. 686, and cases there collected. Nevertheless, it is not subject to such construction as to exempt property merely because it is owned by a railway corporation, but which is devoted to other distinct business than that of the company as a common carrier. Duluth, S. S. & A. R. Co. v. Douglas Co. 103 Wis. 75, 79 N. W. 34. Notwithstanding certain marked variations in our cases as to the reasons which warrant exemption, we may consider the attitude of this court as pretty well settled upon certain propositions. Among these is the view that “necessary” in this statute means neither “inevitable” nor merely
In attempting to ascertain from these decided cases why a hotel or elevator in one instance should be held taxable and in another exempt, we are somewhat embarrassed by the necessity of recognizing that each of the earlier cases enforcing taxability of such structures is in some measure, at least, overruled by the later ones holding them exempt, and by the resulting uncertainty as to the extent to which the earlier cases are still authority. The reason given in Milwaukee & St. P. R. Co. v. Crawford Co. 29 Wis. 116, for taxability of the hotel was that its use was not confined exclusively to patrons of the railroad, and presumably merely the antithesis was the conception expressed as “going into a general hotel business,” which was declared to be unnecessary, especially in Prairie du Chiem, where hotel accommodations were abundant. Now, in the later case, 48 Wis. 666, 5 N. W. 3, this sine qua non of exclusive use was repudiated, and mere principal use for patrons of the road was held sufficient to support the necessity of running a general and public hotel, even at Prairie du Chien, with all its hotel accommodations. The latter case certainly also establishes that the existence of abundant hotel accommodations at the same city is not conclusive against the necessity
Since the Milwaukee case is the only one directly bolding a grain elevator not exempt, it becomes necessary to consider the differences between the facts in that case and the present one, as also the materiality of those differences as legal distinctions under the principles laid down in that and other cases. In that case it appeared that the elevators, or most of them, were built by the firm of Angus Smith & Co., engaged in separate business as elevator men; that much of the profits of that business resulted from the mere storage of grain at fixed monthly rates, while the owner thereof held it for sale or use, as distinguished from the other important function of unloading grain from cars and passing it through the •elevator into boats, and that the railway company shared in tírese profits. Further, there was no showing that any substantial obstruction to the railway company’s business of ■delivering grain need result from use of any other elevators in the city, nor that any needs of the company induced the building of those under consideration. In the instant case the proof is undisputed that the elevator in question was constructed by the company solely as a means to the effective performance of plaintiff’s duty as a carrier to deliver grain hauled by it, and without any purpose of conducting a storage business or of realizing any direct profit from the operation of the elevator in competition with those in the separate elevator business. It was shown that, in order to take in grain along its road and deliver it, as most of it must be, to boats, the existing elevator arrangements at Superior and Duluth constituted a practically insuperable obstacle. Those ■arrangements subjected the grain to such burden of expense, and plaintiff’s cars to such delays, that the grain could not be brought at all from the regions of Iowa and Nebraska where its road reached. True, it is found by the trial court that
Wo deem it fully established that the plaintiff could not perform the duty of transporting the grain grown along its-line to the natural market without an elevator at Duluth or-Superior of which operation should be under its control;, that it co-uld not induce or expect the construction of such facilities by others; that it did construct, the elevator in question wholly for that purpose, and without prospect or-expectation of engaging in the elevator business for direct-profit. Erom these facts we can reach no conclusion other-than that its construction and ownership were necessary to the-railroad business of carrying and delivering grain. Indeed,, that situation existing, such necessity seems established by the Bayfield case, 87 Wis. 188, 58 N. W. 245. Though-that be time, there nevertheless remains the question whether this elevator has been in fact used for railroad purposes.. Duluth, S. S. & A. R. Co. v. Douglas Co. 103 Wis. 75, 79
The only remaining circumstance which bears upon whether the principal use of this elevator was other than as a railway appliance is that in the two years under consideration an unusual condition existed, so that the coarse grain in the region traversed by plaintiff’s road was quite limited in amount, and by reason of failure of crops in the interior of the country even such surplus as did exist did not, to much extent, come eastward for a market, so that there was very little grain brought by the plaintiff to Superior, whether belonging to the lessees of the elevator or any one else. In this situation the lessees of the elevator, being in the business of buying grain at its place of growth and disposing of it in the
As a result of our considerations, ~we have reached the conclusion that the structure in question, operated as it is, falls within the reasons set forth as to a similar structure in Chicago, M. & St. P. R. Co. v. Bayfield Co. 87 Wis. 188, 58 N. W. 245, and that the circumstances temporarily affecting the years 1901 and 1902 are not sufficient to deprive it of that character; hence that during those years it was part of the general property of the railroad, necessarily used for its busi-
By the Court. — Judgment reversed, and cause remanded with directions to enter judgment in accordance with tbe prayer of tbe complaint.
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent in this case because I think tbe evidence shows that tbe elevator in question was not necessarily nsed in operating tbe appellant’s road during tbe years in ■question, within tbe meaning of tbe statute. Tbe facts are undisputed that during the years 1901 and 1902 this elevator was used as a public elevator, and that sixty per cent, of tbe •grain bandied therein came to it over other roads, and was ‘handled for other parties. Its principal use, therefore, was for tbe accommodation of tbe public generally, and not for •the discharge of tbe appellant’s duties as a common carrier. Under these circumstances I tbink tbe previous decisions of this court call.for affirmance of tbe judgment.